A HORRIFIED mum found a metal spike in her Aldi steak – and was stunned when the supermarket claimed it was embedded in the cow when it was still alive.

Anna Wood-Penn, 36, bit down on the shiny one-inch bolt as she enjoyed a steak dinner at home with her family.

Council health inspectors investigated and were told by Aldi's meat supplier the unknown object was probably present in the animal when it was slaughtered.

But experts cannot find out where it came from because the supermarket's supplier LOST it after it was handed over by council hygiene inspectors.

The company did not explain how the item passed unnoticed into the packaged £3.09 Ashfield Farm sirloin, but insisted its metal detectors were working properly at the time.

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Mum of two Anna, a recruitment consultant from Wellingborough, Northants, bought several of the steaks from an Aldi store in Northampton.

She told the Sun: "I had the whole family round for a special occasion.

"I bit down on something hard and looked down and there was this shiny object in my food.

"I was shocked. I had to make sure the rest of the family checked their food as well because I was worried one of them could choke.

"I contacted Aldi and they didn't seem bothered by it. Their only concern was getting the metal bit off me."

She refused to send the object to Aldi because she feared the supermarket would lose it and she would never find out how it got in her food.

Instead she passed it to investigators from the council's environmental health department, who then sent it to Aldi's meat supplier to see if came from one of their machines – and then it went missing.

An official from Northampton Borough Council later wrote to Anna: "As a result of the metal going missing, no further investigation into the origin of the metal has been possible.

"It has been suggested that the metal may have been present in the beef pre-slaughter which can happen if the cattle are injured by a foreign object which has remained in the muscle undetected, e.g. fencing wire.

"Unfortunately in the absence of the metal, the supplier is unable to send this off for further testing and analysis to confirm this."

Anna said: "They think it was something that injured the animal in the field.

"In my eyes it looks like something that came off a machine but we'll never know because they lost it just as I was concerned they would.

"I didn't injure myself but that's not the point. The worst thing is they haven't even apologised.

"Aldi have never contacted me since it happened nearly five months ago – I haven't even had a refund for the steaks.

"It's outrageous they are not more concerned for their customers."

Northampton Borough Council said it investigated jointly with South Cambridgeshire District Council, Aldi and its meat suppliers after Anna complained in August.

A spokesman said: “After a thorough and full investigation it was concluded that the meat suppliers had suitable procedures in place to minimise the risk of this type of complaint occurring and that the incident was an isolated one.

“The piece of metal was sent to the suppliers for further testing and unfortunately, it was lost during transit. Although that was frustrating, it would not have changed the outcome of the investigation.

“Northampton Borough Council reported back to the complainant and asked for permission to send her contact details onto Aldi, in case they wanted to make contact directly.”

Aldi said: “Following Mrs Penn-Wood’s complaint we conducted a full investigation with our supplier, which found no abnormalities in the metal detection information with the batch of steaks.

"We have written to Mrs Penn-Wood to apologise for the delay in our correspondence with her and for her experience with this product.”

Last week Aldi said it will trial trolleys with seatbelts for kids after a mum said her nine-month-old son was injured falling out.

Anna told Sun Online she still has had no apology from Aldi.

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